Company Pays $1.8 Million To Settle Fraud Claims In Alabama

Pinnacle made a voluntary repayment of $236,204. Under the settlement agreement, the company will re-pay an additional $1,771,522.

As a condition of the settlement, Pinnacle is also required to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, under which the company will be monitored for a period of five years to ensure that in the future it complies with all federal health care program rules. But in the agreement, the company does not make an admission that it is liable and the U.S. Attorney’s office does not concede that its claims are not well founded. U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance stated in a news release:

The resolution of this lawsuit means nearly two million taxpayer dollars that were used to reimburse false claims by Pinnacle Medical Solutions have been recovered.

Jim Barger, a lawyer with the Birmingham firm of Frohsin & Barger, represented the two whistleblowers. Jim did a very good job, both for his clients and for the U.S. taxpayers, and he should be commended for his work. U.S. Attorney Vance and her staff should also be commended for getting involved in this case and helping to work out this settlement.